


My Little Savior

by ChangeTheCircumstances



Series: The Sins of an Empire [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Dark!Bail, Emperor!Bail, F/M, Gen, I love Breha I swear, Kid Leia, Sith AU, Sith!Leia, dark au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-09 02:31:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6885517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangeTheCircumstances/pseuds/ChangeTheCircumstances
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While spending an afternoon with Leia, Bail discovers that Breha has been more involved than he first thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Little Savior

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again for everyone who's read this little evil au. It means a lot. Thanks :)
> 
> Also, quick note, Starblossom is a canon type of fruit on Alderaan so I thought it would be cute if Bail called Leia that like a nickname (like how some people will call their kid Pumpkin or Peanut).

Though there were still Senate meetings, those held little power and were more for show than anything else. It gave the illusion that the Senators still had control and eased the minds of those fearful of the too controlling Empire. However, the real meetings were those held with the Emperor and Empress and usually around the top ten men, most of those military leaders plus one or two Senators that actually held power.

As one such meeting went on, a few eyes traveled to the door as a young girl walked in on the meeting. Such an intrusion, no matter the age or name of the person, would not have been tolerated except for the fact that the girl wasn’t no one. She was the seven year old daughter of the Empress.

For some time, her father had remained a mystery to the people until it was revealed that it was Anakin Skywalker, one of the four notorious Sith that had killed Sheev Palpatine. But he had been given clemency for his crimes and had stripped the mask of Vader away. People had reason to trust him now because of the careful way the Emperor and Empress had described his reasons, but by this point they really could have said anything and gotten away with it thanks to the power that they now held.

Neither Bail nor Padmé gave any mind to Leia’s presence when she entered. Though young, she was smart enough to understand not to interrupt unless an emergency had occurred. Her brother, Luke, never walked in on their meetings unless by accident but Leia would often wonder in and sit off to the side, curiously listening to what they were discussing.

Sometimes she did run back off before the meeting was over but this time she stayed. All members other than Bail and Padmé stood up and respectfully bowed before leaving. Only then did the Emperor and Empress get up and approach Leia.

“How are you sweetheart?” asked Padmé as Leia hopped up from her spot and met them.

She hugged them both before saying, “I’m great. Dad showed Luke and I how to do a Force push today.” Her tone betrayed how excited she was over it but she managed to keep that in for the most part, giving at least the appearance of a better behaved child than her brother. All knew that Leia was just as mischievous as her twin though. She simply didn’t get caught as often.

“I’m very proud of you,” Padmé said with a gentle smile as she pushed back a few of Leia’s loose hair. “Did you enjoy yourself?”

Leia nodded excitedly. She knew that neither her mother or Uncle Bail could feel the Force so she described it in the best way she could think. “It was so warm and inviting. Dad told us about how cold the Jedi used it. Blocking out all emotions and stuff like that. But it felt…nice.”

“I’m glad you had a good time,” Bail said with a smile. “Ready for our little date?”

Again, Leia nodded excitedly.

Padmé asked, “A date? What will you two be up to?”

“I had several artifacts from Alderaan flown in along with recordings of our history that she’s been asking about,” Bail replied.

“Is that alright?” asked Leia, her eyes wide and waiting.

“Of course sweetheart. Should I expect you at dinner?”

The girl hesitated, giving Bail a questioning look.

“If you leave, the items won’t just disappear but you are welcome to have dinner with myself and Breha,” Bail offered.

Leia turned her gaze back to her mother with the silent question. Padmé nodded and Leia just barely kept herself from jumping with joy. “Thank you mother!”

Both Bail and Padmé smiled down at her. Bail asked, “Are you ready then Starblossom?” It was a nickname that he used often with her.

She nodded and Bail automatically dropped to his knees. Leia ran behind him and jumped on his back, the action now incredibly natural as they had done it a hundred times. Bail stood back up while supporting Leia.

Padmé shook her head, a chuckle escaping her lips. “I swear that you do it simply to upset Anakin.”

It was no secret that Anakin did not like Bail in the least, even less when his daughter seemed naturally drawn to him. Bail simply found the man’s annoyance amusing. “I assure you that it is just as fun watching that scowl distort your husband’s face as it is watching your daughter smile,” Bail assured Padmé as he looked over his shoulder at Leia.

The girl smiled back and Bail took that as a sign to head out. “Until later Padmé. I’ll make sure to contact you if it looks like she’ll be staying for dinner.”

“Thank you Bail. Until next time,” Padmé responded. She kissed Bail on the cheek before heading out of the room, Bail and Leia following.

Padmé was always ever regal in front of others, her outfits alone making her seem distant and untouchable in a very godlike way. Only in private company did she truly become the warm mother that few saw her as. Bail did not mind appearing less stately, like carrying Leia through the Senate Building with her on his back. However, that was because his reputation was not built on what he did in the Senate rooms but more so what he did outside of them. Padmé knew how to target groups, creating food blockades and halting trade to certain systems if necessary to get them to sway to their rule. Bail was known more for individual and… _intimate_ gestures instead to get others to cooperate.

However, for the moment, it was simply Bail carrying Leia through the Senate Building as they made it to his private shuttle.

Long ago, Bail had left Alderaan behind, only dealing with his home world when absolutely necessary. It was similar to how Padmé acted with Naboo. After all, they both had a galaxy to take care of and their homeworlds were self-sustaining so there was little reason to deal with them. It was also why Bail officially lived on Coruscant now in a palace built for himself and his wife. Padmé had her own in a different part of the planet.

On the trip home, Bail listened to more of Leia’s day. She started off with what she’d done that morning and went all the way to when her brother had wanted to work on speeders and starfighters and her dad had only been to happy to show him. That was why she’d decided to head into the meeting.

About the time she got to that, they had arrived at Bail’s home and he picked her up again, carrying her into the palace. They passed by a few guards and the secretary Bail kept around before they got to one of the private sitting rooms.

They hadn’t passed Breha and Bail didn’t actively seek his wife out. Instead, he focused on taking the packages from the desk that had been brought as requested and carried them over to the couch. Leia had already sat down, her face showing clear excitement. Earlier on, Bail had worried about disappointing her, some of her requests being for fairly mundane things. Yet every piece of history, every small artifact, every overly complex chart she seemed to love. She simply enjoyed learning and the captive interest and smiles did not go away as Bail showed her each item and read from the journals he had received.

They went on like that for a good hour and were currently on a journal that Leia was turning every which way to read the scrawled notes written on the sides and in between the paragraphs. It was at that point that Breha finally made her appearance.

For years Bail had kept himself hidden from her and the rest of the galaxy. He was kind and gentle and soft spoken when necessary and loud only when it was required. That was the persona that he had presented. A calm, but authoritative and easily likable man. When the Empire had begun though, he had let the truth slip forward day by day, month by month, year by year. Padmé had done the same. Now after seven years of the Empire, false masks, at least like the ones that he and Padmé had worn, were no longer needed.

And, as predicted, Breha had slowly distanced herself more and more. Now they rarely saw each other except in the interest of the public.

Breha smiled at Leia upon entering but it was a half smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. Part of Breha automatically loved the girl but another part, never mind the innocence and youth, could not forget that her parents were the Empress and Vader. Nor did it go unnoticed how close Leia had grown to Bail.

Still, she put on pleasantries as best she could manage and kissed Leia’s cheek. “How are you Leia?”

“Good. I’m gonna get to stay for dinner,” she said happily.

Bail smiled at her. “So you have decided to stay for dinner, Starblossom?”

Leia nodded. “We’ve barely scratched the surface. I can’t stop now!”

Bail chuckled and fondly patted her head. “In that case I’ll go contact your mother and tell her. How about you show Breha what we were looking at, hmm? We were just at the part where Jack Grenor was recounting the slaughter of House Mulina.”

Leia started babbling excitedly as he walked away, but Bail still got a good look of Breha’s face turning white as she listened to the gruesome tale. Bail grinned and made his way to the nearest room with a holoprojector, his office. He sent a quick message to Padmé and would have gone back right away if not for the message that was also left waiting for him. It was a visual recording and audio transcript sent by Obi-Wan. Bail transferred it to a data pad. Sitting at his desk, he went through the video, fast forwarding and rewinding at key points while simultaneously looking over the script.

It took him a good while to get through it all, long enough that he was interrupted with Leia peeking her head through the door. She patiently waited for Bail to put the data pad down before she asked, “Work?”

“Hmm, somewhat. But it can wait for a while longer. Hungry?”

Bail closed out of the information and went to scoop up Leia in his arms as he took her to the dining hall. Breha was already there, looking considerably paler than before, likely due to the little story Leia had read. Usually, such a reaction caused a dark, twisted satisfaction to rise up in him. However, he did not want her face white with shock and disgust and her appetite lost but everything burning for air with her face purple and blue, and her cheeks flushed red…

Needless to say it took more self-control than usual to simply sit there with her. To help, he focused on Leia and mostly ignored Breha, eyes only moving to her when she finally excused herself.

After dinner, he guided Leia back to the sitting room and got her preoccupied with another text before he told her he’d be right back. He then went in search of Breha, something he hadn’t done in some time.

As he walked, part of Bail admitted that he admired Breha for her stunt. Apparently she had been more resourceful than he gave her credit for. Nevertheless, it was the fact that he had underestimated her that fueled his anger and trumped anything else. To think that _she_ had been behind the growing mass of foolish rebels.

Eventually, he found her in her personal suite. She sat at her desk reading a data pad and visibly jumped at Bail’s entrance. She was afraid. _Good_.

“Honey, I think there’s a few things we should be talking about,” Bail said as he approached.

Breha stood up and it was so clear that she knew he had found out. There was no dramatic glancing back and forth between each other and some exit. She simply bolted, trying for the balcony.

Bail was curious what she planned to do once she got there. The drop gave her a fifty-fifty chance of survival and even then she’d probably be seriously injured. Nevertheless, he doused his curiosity and simply leapt at her. Grabbing her by her arm, he threw her to the ground. Breha tried to get up but Bail used his size and weight to his advantage. She struggled as he straddled her and pinned her arms to the ground.

“Breha…sweet Breha. To think that it was all because of you,” sighed Bail. “All this trouble and silly uprising.”

She was still breathing heavily and a sheen of sweat glistened over her forehead, yet she stilled and managed a calm voice. “Killing me will not kill this rebellion.”

“Any chance of you talking?” Bail asked.

“ _Never_.”

“Well, I must say thank you then. These past few years have been wonderful,” sighed Bail. “Alas, you have also just signed your death certificate. Good bye sweet Breha.”

His hands released her arms and latched around her throat. Breha tried to push herself off the floor, her hands reaching up to claw at his face but he easily evaded each swipe.

Bail could feel the movement of blood, rushing through the veins on her neck. Her skin burned under his hands and the little noises that escaped her mouth sent goose bumps over his skin. Closing his eyes, Bail slowly tightened his grip, bit by bit, crushing her wind pipe—

“Uncle Bail?”

With a disgruntled sigh, Bail opened his eyes and looked over to find Leia standing just inside the doorway. “Leia, go back to the books. I’ll be there in a second.”

She frowned, uncertain of what to say. Bail was about to encourage her to leave again but his momentary slip in focus gave Breha the chance to break free from his grip and try to scramble away. Bail immediately tightened his thighs around her but a well timed hit to the face stunned him enough that she got up and ran to the nearest cabinet. She pulled out a blaster from some drawer and held it in her hands.

Bail gingerly touch his now split lip as he stood up with the barrel of the blaster pointed at him.

“I am leaving. Leia, get out of the way,” Breha got out. She took a step towards the door but Bail stepped into her line of sight.

“I retract my momentary admiration for you. You’re a complete idiot if you think you’re leaving here. Even if you shoot me, you’re not getting out alive.”

In Bail’s defense, he didn’t think Breha would actually shoot him but then again, he didn’t think she’d go behind his and the Empire’s back and form a rebellion. Still, the shot should have hit him and he should have died, then and there. Instead, Bail’s eyes widened as a blue bolt was frozen in midair as was Breha. He suddenly remembered that they weren’t alone and turned to see Leia with her little hands up in the hair, her face wrought with concentration.

“Uncle Bail,” she said through gritted teeth. “Please step back.”

Carefully, Bail sidestepped the bolt and Leia suddenly dropped her hands, the bolt flying into the wall. Breha stumbled as she suddenly found herself unstuck but before she could do more, Leia’s hands came back up. Breha clawed at the invisible hands around her throat, the blaster dropping to the ground.

At that point, Bail got to see one of the rare moments where Leia showed what she had inherited from her father. His anger.

With eyes shining bright yellow and her small brow wrinkled in concentration, she yelled, “ _You will not hurt him again_!”

There was actually a brutal crunch that sounded through the air as Breha suddenly stopped fighting and fell to the ground, her form still and unmoving. Bail took a moment to kneel down, utterly stunned to find her neck crushed, the wind pipe, the veins, the bones, everything so  that her head almost seemed disconnected from her body. But he tore his eyes away from the image as Leia fell to the floor.

“Leia!”

Rushing to her side, Bail scooped her up in his arms and carefully brushed her hair from her eyes. “Starblossom? Hey, sweetheart. Hey, you with me?”

She blinked, it taking a moment for her eyes to focus on the face above her. As that happened, the yellow started to slip away, the moment of pure emotion having passed. When she finally could see, she nuzzled against Bail’s chest and mumbled, “You’re safe now.”

“You didn’t…you know what you’ve done. Right Leia?” Bail asked carefully as he continued to run his fingers through her hair.

She nodded and gripped Bail’s shirt. “Aunt Breha was gonna kill you. So I killed her.”

Bail chuckled. He supposed it was that simple. “You do know that you ended a life. Correct? Aunt Breha isn’t coming back from this.”

“Dad and mother kill people all the time,” Leia replied. She shifted, seeming to get some of her strength back. “You like to kill people don’t you?”

“Well not willy-nilly,” Bail said as he tickled her. She laughed and he added, “But what I and your parents and Uncle Obi-Wan do is different. We’re adults Leia. We—”

“If you’re telling me I can’t go ‘round killing others, I know,” she interrupted. “I only killed her cause she was going to kill you. I didn’t want that to happen.”

“And I am very thankful for it. I simply want to make sure you’re alright.”

Leia earnestly nodded and hugged Bail tight. “You’re safe. Of course I’m fine.”

“Well I’m glad to hear I mean that much to you. But now we need to go tell your mother—”

“No!” Leia said quickly. She adamantly shook her head and replied, “She’ll tell Dad and then he’ll get angry with you.”

“Leia, we shouldn’t—”

“He doesn’t like you enough as it is,” interrupted Leia. “He can’t know and mother can’t know.”

Cocking his head to the side, Bail looked down at the girl, only seven years old yet her face stubbornly set to show that she wouldn’t budge.

“You know that if they find out, it will be worse than if I told them,” Bail said.

“They won’t,” replied Leia. “Our secret. They won’t find out.”

“If you tell your brother, he will likely go to them.”

“I said our secret, didn’t I?” responded Leia.

“You did,” chuckled Bail.

“So we don’t tell them,” Leia said. “Anyone. Deal?”

She held out her pinky and Bail couldn’t help but laugh as he wrapped his around hers. “Alright, our little secret then.”

“Thank you!” she cried out and hugged Bail tight again. Pulling away, she looked over to Breha’s fallen form and asked, “What will you do?”

“Oh, I’ll make her disappear,” Bail assured her. “People won’t be to surprised what with my disposition. Besides, your mother will completely understand why I would kill her and make her disappear once she finds out Breha was leading a rebellion.”

Leia’s eyes went wide. “I killed a rebel leader!?”

“Yes…I suppose you did.”

Grinning even wider, Leia replied, “Then I’m a hero.”

“My little savior,” Bail agreed.

“I’ll let you take care of the body then,” she said, jumping up. “I’ll be in the sitting room. Love you Uncle Bail.”

He smiled back and kissed her forehead. “Love you too Starblossom. I’ll see you in a few.”

Bail watched her go and then turned back to the body. Time to get to work.


End file.
